Happy coincidences are at the heart of a concert on Tuesday at Ohio State University.

The School of Music’s Wind Symphony — with Michael Sachs, principal trumpet of the Cleveland
Symphony as guest soloist — will perform
A Voice, a Messenger, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis.

Their performance will be the first among Big Ten band programs, whose directors co-commissioned
the Kernis work; the Wind Symphony and Sachs will also perform the composition on March 1 at a
convention of college band directors at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.

A few years ago, Big Ten band directors asked Kernis to write a trumpet concerto.

“We contacted him, and he said, ‘You know, I just talked with the New York Philharmonic, and
they want a trumpet concerto, too.’” He said, ‘Why don’t you guys get together,’” said Ohio State
music professor Russel C. Mikkelson, who conducts the Wind Symphony.

“This is certainly the first I know of in which a band-director organization has teamed up with
a major symphony to commission a new work,” he said.

The New York Philharmonic gave the work its premiere in 2012.

With the Ohio State ensemble invited to perform at the band-directors convention, the time
seemed right to give the Kernis work its second performance.

“I thought all of those things were so positive for our students that I didn’t want to miss the
opportunity,” Mikkelson said. He invited Sachs to serve as soloist.

Mikkelson called the work a challenging tour de force, with the soloist performing on a C
trumpet, a flugelhorn and a piccolo trumpet.

In his notes about the composition, Kernis wrote that Smith had asked him to consider the roles
of horns such as trumpet and shofar (ram’s horn) in scripture.

“I developed impressions for the work while attending Rosh Hashana services, hearing the shofar
in person,” Kernis wrote.

The concert, titled “Looking Back, Listening Forward,” will also include the 2012 work
The Frozen Cathedral, which OSU co-commissioned from composer John Mackey, a native of New
Philadelphia, Ohio.